How many seats needed to win election in Pakistan: Imran Khan

Supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party staged protests in the cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar. The crowds numbered in the hundreds due to the heavy police presence, small when compared to previous demonstrations. Several were arrested.

PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan asked supporters to stage peaceful protests at election offices, saying polling was manipulated and the Election Commission of Pakistan should stop vote rigging — allegations it has denied. PTI supporters should now “exercise their constitutional, democratic and political right to peaceful protest to protect the mandate of the people,” he said in a post on X.

The protests up the tempo after an already contentious election, which saw Khan’s candidates, forced to run as independents, shock observers by clinching the most seats but falling short of a majority. The victory showed Pakistan’s young voters and the middle class were disillusioned with the status quo of political parties backed by the Sharif and Bhutto clans and voted in numbers for an alternative.

Analysts say the nation’s powerful military, which has clashed with Khan, is backing a government formed by the Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party. Sharif’s party failed to reach an agreement on forming a government with Bhutto Zardari’s group in initial talks Saturday but forged a working pact with a secular-based party known as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan from the commercial capital of Karachi.

The independents’ strong performance points to Khan’s enduring popularity among the nation’s 129 million registered voters, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet amid the fastest inflation in Asia. 

“If the military…